“When you actually care about someone, the last thing you want is for them to treat the relationship like an exchange of commodities.” ~~ Geralyn Corcillo (Book: Queen of the Universe)

The reading experience of ‘Miss Adventure’ was lukewarm, but it’s a first one in the series, so that’s okay.

Let’s see if ‘Queen of the Universe’ is better or worse…

Genre: Chicklit Romance.

Main Characters: Lola Scott, Arlen Black.

‘Queen of the Universe by Geralyn Corcillo’ ~~ Synopsis:

Lola is writing and producing her first ever TV show with only one small hitch – she’d not found her main character – Sam Destry. She’s envisioned Sam’s character in a certain way, something not people her around understands.

But she’s determined to show them her vision by casting the perfect male lead. So far she’s not selected even one actor to play Sam. She’s getting anxious and others are getting anxious as well.

One day she meets Arlen Black, someone hired to renovate her house. The moment Lola sees Arlen walking into the studio, she realizes that he’d make the perfect Sam Destry. The guy walks, talks and behaves just like the character she’s written.

Arlen is her Sam Destry. But there’s only one problem: Arlen has no interest in becoming a television actor. It doesn’t matter to him that he’d be cast with one of America’s favorite actresses or that he’d earn more or he’d get famous.

Somehow Lola manages to make him audition. His audition convinces Lola even more and she goes around telling everyone that Arlen is Sam and will act in the pilot.

Another small problem is: Arlen is not aware of Lola’s promise. But that’s a small matter as far as Lola is concerned. Lola is sure she’d resolve this small problem soon. Lola’s motto is simple: Everyone wants something and Arlen is no different. He must want something too. She’s not buying his act that he doesn’t want anything.

She’s sure she’d find out what Arlen wants and then she’d manipulate him into playing Sam. It’s that easy.

Arlen couldn’t believe he landed himself in a mess when he walked into Lola’s office to discuss her home renovation. Now she’s getting on his nerve, by asking him to become a television actor. He doesn’t want to. He likes his life as it is.

He’s waiting for his kids to arrive to spend their holidays with him. He wanted to finish work before their arrival. Instead tsunami has hit his life in the form of Lola Scott, who doesn’t seem to know when to stop.

Then Lola makes an offer, Arlen couldn’t refuse and agrees to start work on her house.

To get Arlen back where it’d be easier to manipulate him, Lola promises him her absence while he renovated her home. Lola has no plans to stay away. It no longer matters to Lola if her house gets renovated.

All that matters to her is her show and that Arlen agrees to play Sam and saves the show.

When suddenly Arlen agrees, Lola begins to wonder for the first time, if she’s made the right decision to drag him into her business. And what she’s going to do with her inconvenient attraction to him.

Review:

Another horror shows I ended finishing despite not wanting to. What was it anyways?

So I started reading ‘Queen of the Universe’ after finishing ‘Miss Adventure’ under the mistaken impression that it’s going to be another fun read. Maybe even better than the first book in the series. Don’t blame me, it’s known to happen in some authors’ case.

‘Queen of the Universe’ is anything, but funny. It’s a tragedy all the way and the kind that bores and prompts you to throw the book.

There are many annoying things about this story:

1: It’s boring, boring, boring! (Raining Exclamation Points as there’s no other way to get your point across!) I didn’t like this style of author’s writing in ‘Miss Adventure’ and it’s even more annoying in the ‘Queen of the Universe’. The title of the book should be something else, something matching the story’s boring status.

2: Goodness the pointless exclamation points to make the boring writing interesting or maybe just to get on the readers’ nerves. As if the story doesn’t do an awesome job of destroying patience and brining on boredom from hell.

3: Unnecessary POVs of unnecessary characters. They are so pointless and add nothing to the story. So I skipped Ray’s POV. All this, Ray character thinks is:

Ray: OMG!!! Lola is crazy!!! (His POV adds nothing to the story. I wonder why it’s even there. I get it that Lola is crazy and loves destroying other people’s peace and life. Mentioning that she’s in Hollywood is enough to make the connection.)

Lola: OMG!!! I’m crazy!!!!

Arlen: OMG!!! She’s crazy!!! But I think I’m falling for her! Must stay away! Did I mention she’s crazy!?!

Me: OMG!!!!! MAKE ME STOP READING THIS NONSENSE!!!!

Despite Lola and Arlen having horrible past, I just couldn’t sympathize with them. They only came across as pathetic characters to me. Maybe it’s also because of no character development. The most pathetic character is that of Arlen’s, refusing to live his life for past gone wrong.

70 chapters and no way to navigate them? What a perfect horror! Either continue reading without riffling or start bookmarking. Whoever formatted and uploaded this book to the Amazon forgot to add ‘Table of Contents’ so readers could navigate with ease.

What’s with labeling each character’s POV as a new chapter? The plot is boring enough as it is and then add 70 chapters to make it seem like never ending nonsense.

I’m so disappointed with the author after reading ‘Queen of the Universe’.